‘Caustic Political Climate’ Spurs Arizona GOP Lawmaker’s Exit

MESA, AZ — A Republican senator from Arizona has yanked his name from the state’s upcoming primary election ballot, citing “an increasingly caustic political climate” in both Arizona and Washington, D.C. It would have been the last campaign for Sen. Bob Worsley, 62, who was recruited for the district serving a heavily Republican district in Mesa in 2012 and would have had to exit the seat in 2020 under term limits.

Worsley’s withdrawal means political Republican Tyler Pace will be unopposed in the Aug. 28 primary election. He will likely face Kathy Mohr-Almeida, the lone Democrat in the Senate District 25 primary, in the November general election.

Worsley, the CEO of a privately held energy company and founder of SkyMall, an in-flight catalog filled with eclectic products, wrote in a guest op-ed in the Arizona Republic that he never had political aspirations, but “answered the call” when he was recruited for the position six years ago.

“Regrettably, I now feel I can better impact society through resuming my private endeavors than by continuing in elected office while the GOP takes a nap,” he wrote. (Get Phoenix Patch's real-time news alerts and free morning news letters. Like us on Facebook. Also, download the free Patch iPhone app or free Patch Android app.)

A tipping point for Worsley’s decision was the separation of children and parents at the U.S. southern border, he told Capitol News Service. “We’ve got to wake up to what this extremism is doing to the tone and tenor of our politics,” he said.

Worsley, who describes himself as generally conservative, said his withdrawal from the race shouldn’t be viewed as an attack on the GOP, but rather as a call for Republicans to “speak up when we see unacceptable behavior like what we’re doing on the border with kids.”

Republicans are increasingly doing that. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, the chair of the Republican National Campaign Committee, came out against the Trump administration policy of splitting up families at the border.

“As a father, I know firsthand that there is nothing more important than family, and I understand why kids need to be with their parents,” Stivers wrote, adding:

“I am writing a letter to understand the current policies and to ask the Administration to stop needlessly separating children from their parents. If the policy is not changed, I will support other means to stop unnecessary separation of children from their parents.”

BROKE WITH PARTY ON OTHER ISSUES

Besides providing a critical vote to tap into federal Affordable Care Act funds to expand the number of people eligible for free medical care, Worsley also broke with party ranks with two other Republicans to kill a proposal that would have meant longer automatic prison sentences for immigrants who commit felonies while in the country illegally.

Worsley’s call for a more empathetic approach to immigration was expected. In 2012, he defeated the chief architect of Senate Bill 1070, Russell Pearce, who was trying to make a political comeback after he was kicked out of office in a recall election.

Worsley told the Capitol News Service he doesn’t expect the Republican Party to change course in the next couple of years.

“If you look at my time horizon of only two more years and the state of national and state affairs with I would say an extreme, vitriolic move that we have, I'm not going to see in those two years the Republican Party wake up to the damage that's being done by not speaking up,” he said.

Worsley wrote in the op-ed that issues are almost never “black and white,” but politicians and voters try to shoehorn them into either Republican or Democratic ideology. Given the diversity of voters, compromise is the answer, he said.

“Sometimes, difficult political decisions require immunity to fevered backlash from those prone to oversimplification and demagoguery,” he wrote.

“Whether promoting a kinder, more empathetic approach to immigration than Senate Bill 1070 or providing a responsible safety net to those in need through Medicaid expansion, I am no stranger to such backlash. But in these instances, and others, I weighed all options with deliberate consideration and voted for human dignity over ideology.”

He added: “Civility has become a rare commodity in political debate, a fact that worries me greatly.”

Official photo via Facebook